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Greenspeak CLIL Teaching Approach
Content Language Integrated Learning
“CLIL requires students to speak and write, regarding concepts that are often beyond their linguistic range. It is this attempt to express oneself that is the key to language development in CLIL.”
Greenspeak developed from an idea that we wanted to use English to teach students about the environment in which they live. We were clear that a greater understanding of the world would skill them to better face the challenges of being a potential leader in the ‘new age’ global community. As we looked closer into this we found that the idea wasn’t necessarily new, and that it already had a name – CLIL (Content language Integrated learning).
This approach actually has a number of different names including EMI (English as a Medium of Instruction), LAC (Language Across the Curriculum), CBI (Content-based Instruction), CBLT (Content-based Language Teaching) or Bilingual Education. But essentially the same idea - learning subject content in a foreign language - rather than learning the language itself. The idea of CLIL itself has been around for quite a long time, one of the first examples is the ancient Romans whose wealthier citizens preferred to have their children educated in Greek as not only did they receive an education but as a by product better learned Greek, the then international language of scholars and philosophers.
Principles
Generally speaking, CLIL is seen as being dual focused, as it aims to introduce students to content areas such as Science, Music or Art using a foreign language (in the case of Greenspeak English) as the medium. This dual approach allows for both the language and subject to be learned much more effectively. The two basic principles of CLIL are that in the classroom Language is used to learn as well as to communicate, and it is the subject matter which determines the language needed to be learned. Writer Phil Ball sums up CLIL by saying that it is “Using languages to learn, and learning to use languages”. He goes on to explain that “CLIL requires students to speak and write, regarding concepts that are often beyond their linguistic range. It is this attempt to express oneself that is the key to language development in CLIL.”
The content driven approach means that the subject content is given primary focus. This applies to both the content and the administrative implications, like activities. There are strong and weak forms of CLIL. A weak form would be where the topics of ESL activities are simply chosen on a theme and language is the focus, while a strong form would base it’s whole syllabus on non-ESL subjects with improvements in language as a by-product of content learning. So, for example, Greenspeak where we favor total immersion, where the academic and social medium is a foreign language, would be considered operating under a strong version of CLIL.
The overall focus of CLIL is fluency, providing students with communication skills, rather than discussing the differences between the various language structures such as Past Simple and the Present Perfect tense. This is not to say that CLIL does not improve accuracy. It simply means that effective learning is much more likely to occur within an approach that prioritises skills like thinking and communication.
According to the 4Cs curriculum (Coyle 1999), a successful CLIL lesson should combine different elements of the following:
Content - Progression in knowledge, skills and understanding related to specific elements of a defined curriculum.
Communication - Using language to learn whilst learning to use language.
Cognition - Developing thinking skills which link concept formation, understanding and language.
Culture - Exposure to alternative views and shared understandings, which deepen self awareness, and awareness of others.
At Greenspeak, our lessons take aspects from all of these to form a cohesive and communicative approach.
Benefits
The benefits of CLIL are profound and varied. They include;
increasing motivation,
introducing students to more information about the world in which they live,
developing a positive ‘can do' attitude towards learning languages, and
increasing cultural awareness and preparing students for further studies and work
In fact, research and feedback from teachers in school settings has demonstrated that children's educational experience is significantly enhanced by taking the emphasis off learning language and placing it on learning content.
Teaching non-language content in English makes the use of the foreign language more real and meaningful for children, as well as catering to a variety of learning styles. In addition, taking information from different sources and evaluating or re-structuring it can help students to develop very valuable cognative skills. These skills can then be transferred to other subjects and can even improve study skills such as note taking, summarising and extracting key information from texts.
Greenspeak and CLIL
Once we had realized the potential of CLIL, we had to put it into action. We designed a truly innovative program that took the principles of CLIL, and combined them with TBL (Task Based Learning) to help cement learning with fun experiences. Successful educational programs must have clearly set goals and objectives (which we most definitely have), in combination with great teachers. At Greenspeak, we firmly believe that ‘all teachers are teachers of language' (The Bullock Report - A Language for Life, 1975), and as such, our English teachers and content area teachers work together when planning and preparing materials and classes. There are three crucial concepts of education working in harmony in a great lesson. Subject content to be acquired, Language skills used to work on the concept, Specific language items required by conceptual content. Our teachers use a variety of activities to fulfill these requirements. This ensures that our curriculum and lessons are based on solid CLIL principles, but are delivered in a fun and interactive way.
What really sets Greenspeak apart however, is the innovative concept of combining intercultural, immersion-style language learning with environmental and cultural education. Environmental education (in addition to building understanding of the environment, our impact on it, and sustainable living) is a rich source of experiential and process-centred learning, which is how all learning should be. Language learning is a big part of this, as it provides students with the tools to understand the world outside their immediate surroundings. This is summed up by Ludwig Wittenstein, who said “The limits of my language are the limits of my universe”. Greenspeak believes that the best possible curriculum is one that links learning about the human relationship with its physical, social and cultural environment, via language education.
From our CEO: Education for Success in the Global World
by Nick Evered
Everywhere you look, be it on TV, the Web, Newspapers or any other media you name, you see that there is no escaping that landscape today is global. There are very few individuals whose lives today are not affected in one way or another by events taking place in other countries. Whether it is our economies, our entertainment, the things we buy, our news or our politics – it is global. The same also applies to our work environment. Very few people, and certainly none in case of the corporate world, escape having to deal with colleagues, customers, call centers, partners or suppliers who are located in other countries. As you rise up in the ranks of management you will find the need for global interaction on a regular basis is the norm.
Today to be successful, it is no longer enough to just be Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Australian or American. To be really successful we must embrace that we are living in a global community and therefore fully engage to understand what that means. This is far more than just language, vocabulary and grammar, although these are very important, it is more about really understanding the culture and the environment in which other people live so that you have a context within which to communicate.
One of the most challenging aspects to management is getting employees to not only know “what” you want them to do, but also the “why”, a clear outcome you want to achieve and where it fits in the companies strategy. If you leave staff with just the “what” then naturally they become only task focused, working away at that task without really understanding the purpose or the context. This most often leads to wasted time, boredom and worst of all, you never get to truly tap into an individual’s creative talent. This is a significant management issue when you are just dealing with managers and staff from the same country, with the same language, same culture and environmental context. Add the dimension of people from different countries, with different languages and context, and immediately you exponentially increase the complexity and therefore the likelihood of miscommunication, wasted effort and under utilized or inappropriate use of resources.
Numerous times I have seen or even been involved with a management meeting of senior executives from different countries with different native languages, all of who spoke and understood English reasonably well. They have sat in a room, discussed an issue, all seemingly agreed to what had been decided and then three months later you find that different managers have done things very differently than what was agreed. This ends up with so much wasted time and effort, and has a significant impact on both the top and bottom line of a business. Another meeting is inevitably required to fix it, incurring additional cost plus the opportunity cost due to wasted time and effort. This opportunity cost loss in today’s fast moving world is almost certainly very much larger than just the direct costs.
I believe many senior executives these days realize that this problem exists, and in order to avoid it, frequently create additional dimension. We see numerous examples where a senior leader brings in “their team” - basically this means they put in place people they know who they can communicate with easily. Most usually, this means people of similar nationality, culture, linguistic background who end up dominating the decision making process of a group. The net effect is that they don’t get to tap into the diversity of talent that already exists within the company. The more enlightened leaders are those who foster a program that develops young managers from diverse backgrounds. These young talented people need to be groomed not only professionally but an investment made into their development of language skill, cultural understanding, and a global appreciation.
In my experience, the people who are becoming the most valuable in the market are those who have spent some time overseas and have acquired both an additional language and an awareness of intricacies of another culture in addition to their own. This is much more than just about the language, but fluency in English, both spoken and written, including colloquialisms and local specific terms are also important.
The individuals who display characteristics of a true global citizen are able to build relationships and friendships with people from different countries with ease, they are comfortable engaging and working with English speakers as well as those from different cultures, they are aware of the global world and respectful of the differences, they are the ones that consistently outshine others even if they have higher educational qualifications or even intelligence.
During my corporate career I have invested a lot of time in young individuals to help them broaden their experiences through providing them with foreign language courses, exchange programs or even temporary relocations to different countries. Many of these talents I keep in touch with and it is so rewarding to see them fast track to success.
I have always thought that there must be a better way to do this, as really these skills should be developed earlier in life. You want these skills to be in place before they start to build their career, hence why so many parents and even governments encourage kids to learn foreign languages, in Asia the focus being on English. As there is demand, there seem to be endless supply of extra programs; schools offering exchange programs, brokers who organize transfers to schools and camps overseas. However when I look at many of them it seems that they are a bit hit or miss hoping that by attending an overseas camp or school with local kids that language will be learned by osmosis. Of course it can help, but too often kids find the experience alienating and traumatic trying to integrate to regular schools and camps where teachers and home stay parents are not specifically trained to handle these children.
Looking closely at the problem of how to build the global leaders of the future, it has become clear to me that it requires a more integrated program that targets students and even young people that are already in the workforce to help them build the skills and confidence to be leaders of tomorrow. The program needs to include the three components of Language, Culture, and Environment and be built taking into account the specific challenges that are part of learning English as a Second Language. It needs to be delivered using native English speakers that can help students learn how the language is used in academic, business, and social context. It also needs to be delivered in an environment that nurtures and makes enjoyable the whole process of learning. Finally, the lesson of giving back to our environment, volunteering, engaging in projects, working together for a common goal, to not only reinforce the language, social, and global skills, but to build socially responsible and well rounded leaders that we are sure to need in our future.
Educators and parents need to look past exams as the only measure of English language competency, although they have their place. They need to see what communication and global interaction skills are required in the real world. Not tomorrow, but today.
